Mon, February 27, 2012

AUSTIN, TX (February 27, 2012) – Members of the UT community, including faculty, students, and staff will gather at the UT Campus on Feb 29 to protest the decision by a Tucson school district that prohibits the teaching of dozens of books used in the now banned Mexican American studies program.

Dozens of educators, students, and concerned community members will read aloud from several of the banned books at University of Texas campus West Mall near the fountain on Wednesday, Feb. 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Student groups and Centers in support of the Read-In include: La Colectiva Femenil, Asian Desi Pacific Islander Collective (APAC), Longhorn American Indian Council, Students for Equity & Diversity, Queer People of Color and Allies, the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS), Center for Asian American Studies (CAAS) and Center for Women & Gender Studies (WGS).

While Tucson Unified School District officials claim the books are not officially banned, a wide range of texts were collected and ordered removed to a district storage facility, and former Mexican American Studies teachers have been barred from using the texts in the classroom. Arizona Ethnic Studies Network believes the decision to prohibit teachers from using the texts has resulted in a de facto ban on these books, which raises the specter of free speech violations.

The Feb. 29 event at the University of Texas campus is part of a national read-in being held in support of “ethnic studies, critical pedagogy and thoughtful education.” Teachers, civil rights activists and authors from across the country have strongly criticized the passage of Arizona House Bill 2281, which led to the shutdown of the TUSD Mexican American studies program in January.

In March, a caravan of activists and authors will leave Houston, Texas and visit several cities along the way in an effort called Librotraficantes, which has pledged to deliver copies of the banned books to students in the Tucson area as part of the creation of a series of “underground libraries”. There will be an informational table at the UT Read-In where books from the “banned book” list can be donated for the Librotraficante initiative.

Arizona School Superintendent John Huppenthal and Attorney General Tom Horne declared the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson illegal and Huppenthal threatened to withhold $15 million in state education funding if TUSD district officials did not terminate the program–despite the results of an independent audit that concluded the program did not violate HB 2281.

Arizona Ethnic Studies has created an Internet clearinghouse listing state and national efforts in support of ethnic Studies.

Here’s a list of some of the books banned by TUSD:

A Different Mirrorby Ronald Takaki

A People’s History of the United Statesby Howard Zinn

Occupied Americaby Rodolfo Acuña

Lone Ranger and Tonto by Sherman Alexie

Drink Cultura: Chicanismo by Jose Antonio Burciaga

So Far From God by Anna Castillo

Woman Hollering Creekby Sandra Cisneros

Feminism is for Everybody by Bell Hooks

I am Joaquinby Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

House on Mango Streetby Sandra Cisneros

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Friere

Rethinking Columbus, edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson

Nobody’s Sonby Luis Alberto Urrea

Other links related to the banning of the TUSD ethnic studies program: